I
caught up with Paul Davies (Guitars) from MWWB where we discussed how
this album came about, The whole recording process of the album and
their future plans.
Hi Paul. Thanks for
doing this interview. How are things with you today. We are here to
discuss your excellent new album – Totems – with the legendary
Slomatics. How did this collaboration came about. As even though you
both play Doom based heavy music. Your musical output has been
slightly different to each other. Whose idea was to release an album
together.
I've been a fan of
Slomatics for years. I've not been vocal about it in interviews or
whatever. I've just loved their music. In early 2017 I got an email
off Dave Majury from Slomatics saying how much he loved the latest
MWWB album. Obviously I was buzzing that a guy I admired liked my
music and we just started chatting. Discovering we had shared
interests We chatted about guitars, kraut rock and boxing and
somewhere in there we both agreed it would be cool to do something
involving both bands. Many bands do splits but we wanted to do an
album. A self contained piece.
What can people
expect from your side of the album.
Me and Wes decided to
write a song each. I wrote Master and his Emissary and he wrote
Eagduru. I personally Wanted to take MWWB in a heavier and harder
direction. I wanted to write a proggy type thing with a long intro
and an solo outro. Personally I'm really happy with both songs. They
are probably our best to date. I love the drums.
The thing I love the
most about Totems is this is not a split album as such. It feels very
much as a collaborative and real album between yourselves and
Slomatics. Was that the plan to release something that wouldn’t be
seen as a “split” album but as a proper full length album.
Yeah you are right we
made sure we all knew this was gonna be an album. Not just 2 doom
bands throwing some songs on an album. We worked on the lyrical
concepts and decided on a theme to run through it.
Did you have an easy
or hard time writing and recording the album.
Personally writing was
easy. Me and the drummer locked ourselves away in the rehearsal room
twice a week with Jess popping in to have a look at the vocals.
During the writing of Eagduru Jess was hospitalised with a broken arm
so they had to finish writing it in the studio but we managed to get
our side done in 2 days.
Did you record the
songs the same time as Slomatics. Or where they done apart.
Due to the fact they
had to fly in we recorded ours alone but we did visit SkyHammer
Studios when Slomatics were there and had a few beers.
Your
sound is slightly different on Totems compared to your previous
albums. Is that a fair assumption to make and will you be carrying on
this style of sound for future releases.
Yes that's pretty fair.
We are improving as musicians and I now feel I can push Carrat
(drummer) to play more exiting stuff. I also like going more proggy.
More synths and songs with more parts. But still trying to be as
heavy as we can. We're still gonna write long songs. The next album
will have a 20 minute track at least.
What some people
don’t know is that Marty (Drummer from Slomatics) appears on one of
your songs (Eagduru) and Jess appears on one of Slomatics songs. Was
that planned or a spur of the moment thing.
This was planned. If
we'd had more time we woulda have done more collaboration.
The album is being
released on Vinyl via Black Bow Records. Did you have any input to
the overall design of the vinyl. Or did you leave it up to Jon from
the label to decide.
Both
bands agreed on the colours as we wanted to have an element of the
cover in there.
The album cover is
excellent as well. Who came up with that design. Was it a joint
decision between yourselves and Slomatics. Did you have any
disagreements at all.
We are all kinda pretty
similar so it was easy to agree. We let the artist come up with a
design based on ideas we both had.
Are there any plans
for you and Slomatics in doing any gigs or together to promote the
album.
We did Camden
Underworld in February. That was amazing. Slomatics are pretty busy
in 2018 and we have to record our album. We do wanna play together
again but we will have to see. It may have to be in 2019.
Would you be open to
doing another album such as this with any other bands in the future.
Or was this a one-time deal and experience.
We won't be doing this
kind of thing with any other band. If we had the opportunity to do
this with Slomatics we would definitely do it again.
Has it surprised you
how the Doom/Stoner Metal community has responded to your music. As
you’re highly thought of within the community.
The fans response has
been unreal. So are all the cool blogs and music fan websites. We get
a lot of offers and support from Europe and the US. It still seems
that certain promoters or magazines in the UK won't give you the time
of day if you don't sound like Sleep, Electric Wizard or Kyuss.
Having played festivals in Lithuania, Germany, Poland, France,
Belgium and Holland in such a short career it shows that European
promoters are more responsive to bands that's have their own sound.
What are your future
plans for this year.. Any plans for a new album.
Yep. New album gets
recorded in may. UK tour in September.
Before you go do you
have anything to say to your fans.
Yeah. Thanks for all
the support. It's humbling to know our music means so much to people.
Well have a new album out this year and try to get out the countries
we are yet to visit.
Words by Steve
Howe and Paul Davies.
MWWB Links:
Facebook | BandCamp
